Laurence:  I assume that Rep. Charles Rangel’s family history includes ancestors caught up in the vicious system of slavery. If such is the case, his predecessors were likely among those privileged to be considered “house slaves,” as distinct from the “field slaves.” The house slaves identified themselves with the owner of the plantation (“massa”),  while the field slaves were often the more troublesome sort who resisted – and even tried to escape – the slave system. Slavery, the destruction of American Indian cultures, and the Civil War, were three of the more turbulent episodes of our history whose entropy has not fully worked its … Continue reading Rangel Caught in the Draft